Moscow was a marvellous city to stage it. My wife and I had a hotel which overlooked Red Square and everything seemed to revolve around that vast open space. There were red and blue scarves everywhere. It was a fantastic atmosphere. I felt comfortable the whole time, though. I wasn't nervous at all. I just had this feeling that it was for us. I had confidence in our players.

Rio Ferdinand

Manchester United captain

I tried to sleep in the afternoon, I normally do before games but I think I got 20 minutes. It tells you how much bigger this game was. There was huge pressure and I knew that the team that dealt with it best would come out as winners.

Lubos Michel

Match referee

There were nerves in the tunnel beforehand. I felt much more tension and it was the same for the players. I remember walking out and going around the trophy and I thought, as everybody did, that this was the real thing, the biggest moment of your career, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It certainly was for me. No referee has ever been in charge of two Champions League finals. You have the feeling that all the sacrifices are worth it.

Ferdinand For me, it was the stuff of dreams. Who'd have thought when I was playing at Chadwell Heath, the West Ham training ground, and cleaning Tony Cottee's and Harry Redknapp's boots that one day I would lead a team out in the Champions League final. That is what you play football for.

Charlton There was, of course, extra poignancy with it being the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster and Alex Ferguson had made all his players well aware of the history. He had asked myself and Nobby Stiles to go in after training one day and talk to them because some of the younger players didn't really know the history. They were very respectful and they asked some questions of us.

Michel The big matches can be about the mistakes of the referee and there was big tension, especially from Chelsea because they hadn't won the trophy before. I had more problems with the Chelsea players; United's were more concentrated. Chelsea had big stars but I thought United had more team spirit. The main problem in modern football is respect to opponents and referees. In that kind of situation, some Chelsea players were over-motivated and there was too much dissent. The game was played on the edge. It was very difficult to hold all of these players under control.

Ferdinand We came out and we played the better football, and I thought we should have sown it up in the first half. We had so many chances, and Petr Cech made two fantastic saves. You start to think "If they score, bloody hell, what's going to happen?"

Frank Lampard equalised Cristiano Ronaldo's headed opener for United just before the interval, after Michael Essien's shot deflected off Nemanja Vidic and Ferdinand

Frank Lampard

Chelsea midfielder

The first half-hour, we were not playing a Champions League final, we were playing a friendly game. After that, though, we started moving the ball about a bit and there was only one team on top. After my goal, I felt that only one team was going to win it. We can have pride in how we fought and got back into the game.

Ferdinand Lamps' goal was a sucker punch and we weathered the storm in the second half when they came at us. Didier Drogba hit the post. We had a bit of luck but you get luck when you play open entertaining football as we did in the first half.

Lampard When we believe in ourselves and play the football that we can, I don't think many can live with us, even Man United and the team that they are. We created more chances than they did.

Ryan Giggs replaced Paul Scholes in the 86th minute, his 759th appearance for United breaking Charlton's record

Charlton I have known Ryan since he was 15 and he is just a credit to himself and the club. We are very proud of his achievements and if anyone was going to break my record, I am delighted that it was him.

Ferdinand Ryan made an impact. He might have scored in extra time but John Terry made a good header off the line. Mind you, Lamps hit the woodwork for them as well in extra time.

With five minutes of extra time to go and penalties looming, tempers erupted

Michel The situation started with a small thing. There was a ball kicked out for fair play and Carlos Tevez made the gesture for the United players to press the throw-in. Then Michael Ballack started to react and more players got involved. The mass confrontation started. There is no referee in the world who likes to show a red card but Drogba's slap on Vidic was violent conduct and I had no other option. My assistant Martin Balko saw the incident and I reacted after receiving information from him.

The full-time whistle sounded. Penalties

Henk ten Cate

Chelsea assistant manager

John Terry was not in the first five to take a kick but things change during a game. Some people feel sick and the sending-off of Drogba made us change it. We'd practised penalties so much and we were all very confident.

Michel Each team gave me a list of their first five takers. They didn't need to specify then who would take any sudden-death kicks. Actually, because Chelsea were down to 10 men, United could have reduced their number of takers to 10, meaning that one of their players would not have needed to take a kick if the shoot-out had gone to an eleventh round.

With United having gone first and the score at 2-2, Ronaldo took a stuttering run-up and had his kick saved by Cech

Ferdinand So many different things go through your mind when Cristiano missed his penalty. You start to think he has done so well all season and is it going to end like this? You think you are so close, it is in the palm of your hand and then it is taken away. You are begging for one of their players to miss.

After Nani kept his nerve to score United's fifth kick, Terry made the walk to the spot with the chance to win the Champions League for Chelsea. He slipped and his shot clipped the outside of the post

Lampard I would have put my house on John normally. He is a character and taking penalties in that situation needs character. He had the balls to step up. If he does not slip, he scores. It was a bit like David Beckham. You work so hard to get to a Champions League final, you are the better team in the final and a slip like that and it all turns.

Petr Cech

Chelsea goalkeeper

We all felt that was the moment we were going to win it. I saw Van der Sar going the other way and I thought the ball was going in ... then it was going out.

Michel I will remember forever the penalty of John Terry. Chelsea were so close to the trophy but that's football. For me, it was very sad because John Terry was one of the best players and I admire him as a big professional. He behaved well on the field. So many big stars have missed penalties. Michel Platini, Zico ...

Anderson, Salomon Kalou and Giggs scored in sudden death. Nicolas Anelka had to score to keep Chelsea alive ... but his kick was saved by Van der Sar

Nicolas Anelka

Chelsea substitute

At no point did I think I was going to come on. I was on the bench for 100 minutes and suddenly, I am asked to play, not even a minute after I was sent out to warm up. When you go on, you have to be ready to run. I was then asked to take one of the first five penalty kicks but I said: "That is out of the question. I have come on as a right-back and you want me to take a penalty?" So I had to go seventh. Van der Sar pushed away my shot. All the better for him; that is the game.

Cech It was the lowest feeling because it was the biggest final. We felt we were the better team for the biggest part of the game. We were just very unlucky. When you lose like that, it is very difficult to accept.

Lampard Everyone saw that John Terry was inconsolable because he cares. He is Mr Chelsea. I went through missing a penalty at the World Cup and I know how much it hurts. We were within an inch of winning the Champions League and we pushed all of the way in the Premier League. The season was not a failure.

Michel When the game had finished, amid the swirl of emotions, I remember the rain. Heavy and relentless rain. It was also so cold. We waited for five or ten minutes before we went up to get our medals. The whole game was more difficult. My biggest memory, which I will remember for a lifetime, was when I went up the steps. There were 91 or 94 of them and, on the way up, people were saying "Bravo".

Bobby Charlton led United up as their official representative but refused to allow Michel Platini, the Uefa president, to place a medal around his neck. Ferdinand and Giggs lifted the Champions League trophy together

Charlton I was there and they asked me to go up but I had not earned putting the medal around my neck. It was not for me, it was for the whole club. I said that the medal would go in the club museum and that's where it is.

Ferdinand Playing for Man United is a great achievement in itself but to be one of the players lucky enough to lift the Champions League trophy puts it into another stratosphere. Sir Bobby was very emotional in the dressing room afterwards and the most poignant thing for me was him coming up to me and saying: "Well done, you deserved it."

Charlton I was aware afterwards of our players being aware of the club's history and the way to play these matches. Very small things can turn the tide. We were very aware of the history of the club and how United actually pioneered going into Europe. I was shaking at the end of the game but that was with excitement. For the whole club, it was just fantastic.

Ferdinand Fate seemed to play a big part. Giggsy broke Bobby's record in the European Cup final and it was 50 years since Munich – so maybe it was written in the stars.